China highlighted the fact that the informal summit in India between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will not be based upon the Kashmir issue and the talks will be more of an open nature.
“I think for those things like Kashmir… I don’t think it will be a major topic occupying the talks, that is my understanding,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said, during an interaction with the media. “But for the leaders, they will be free to talk about whatever they like,” she said when asked about it.
China had criticized India’s decision of converting the Ladakh region into a union territory and that was solely because of the fact that Ladakh shares a disputed border with China. China earlier also backed Pakistan in the UN General Assembly when they moved to UN against India’s decision of revoking the special status from Jammu & Kashmir.
Ms. Hua signaled that both the leaders are most likely to hold talks on an open agenda and Kashmir issue will be kept aside. As the summit was meant to be informal, it will be informal according to her. “As for Kashmir will be on the agenda, I’m not sure because this is kind of informal summit and leaders’ meeting I think better we need to give the leaders much time to discuss whatever they would like to discuss,” Ms. Hua remarked.
Ms. Hua clearly mentioned the fact that Kashmir dispute is a matter to be discussed between India and Pakistan and that too peacefully. “And we know there were the UN resolutions regarding Kashmir, so we hope this issue could be resolved through friendly and peaceful negotiations between India and Pakistan according to the relevant UN Charter and UN resolutions.”